The bright side of the crisis. The positive aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic according to the Poles

ABSTRACT

This article is based on the outcomes of the research project on changes in everyday life during the pandemic, conducted at the beginning of lockdown in Poland with the use of CAWI questionnaire. We focus on results related to defining the positive aspects (PA) of the pandemic, describe the kinds of PA noticed by the respondents, categorise the identified PA (by values, concepts of order, and social change they referred), and analyse how socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents differentiate the responses. We argue that the perceived PA were directed towards individual rather than the general social well-being, that they express hope for maintaining rather than transforming the status quo, and that the nature of recognised PA is more defensive than progressive. Contrary to our initial assumptions, statistical analyses also suggest that the PA perception does not correlate with respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics as strongly as expected, which allows for an assumption that other, more situational and personality traits factors also influence the researched phenomenon.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• pandemic
• lockdown
• everyday life
• positive aspects
• social change

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Faculty of Sociology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The project was conducted by the research team that besides the authors consist of Rafał Drozdowski, Piotr Luczys, Ariel Modrzyk, Przemysław Rura, Agnieszka Stamm. The authors of the article would also like to thank the reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestion for improvement.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marek Krajewski

Marek Krajewski - sociologist, full professor at the Faculty of Sociology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, head of the Department of Social Practices Research and Theory. Author of numerous papers and books on popular and material culture, cultural education and collective actions. The initiator of the projects: ‘Invisible City’ and ‘The Archive of Research on Everyday Life’. Co-creator of the cultural education program ‘Very Young Culture’.

Maciej Frąckowiak

Maciej Frąckowiak - sociologist, assistant professor at the Faculty of Sociology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and lecturer at Design Department, SWPS University in Warsaw. He is interested in urban sociology, sociology of architecture and urban planning, visual research, and sociology of culture. He participated in many research projects concerning architecture, culture, and border studies. He currently participates in the international research project ‘De-Re-Bord’ (where he researches Polish-German borderland).

Małgorzata Kubacka

Małgorzata Kubacka - PhD student at the Faculty of Sociology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Her research interests include qualitative research methods in the area of housing studies, sociology of emotions, and boredom studies. Her ongoing doctoral thesis examines emotional and strategical dimensions of boredom management. She is a member of the research team developing ‘The Archive of Research on Everyday Life’.

Łukasz Rogowski

Łukasz Rogowski - sociologist, assistant professor at the Faculty of Sociology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He is interested in visual sociology, visual research, ethics of qualitative research, sociology of mobilities, sociology of new media. He has participated in many research projects focused on, among others, urban visual culture, visual competence, social usage of smartphones and mobile applications. He currently participates in two international research projects: ‘De-Re-Bord’ (where he researches Polish-German borderland) and ‘Ruraction’ (Horizon 2020 project, where he is an ethical commissioner and coordinates visual research).